cheap and easy fudge

If my last fudge recipe was overwhelming or too expensive. Try this old standby, from an evaporated milk brand website.

Here's what you need:
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract
Dash of salt

Line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper.

Combine all ingredients in a heavy sauce pan. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted.

Pour into pan. Chill for 2 hours. Cut into 64 1-inch squares.

Store in an air tight container in the fridge. Share with friends, family, and coworkers.

When I poured this into the pan, it felt a little sad, especially next to the salted caramel masterpiece from yesterday. So I pressed holiday-colored chocolate candies into the top to dress it up. Much more festive!

salted caramel fudge

Here's what you'll need for the fanciest tasting recipe you'll make all season. This deliciousness is adapted from british measurements at this site.

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
¼ cup golden syrup
1 stick of butter
1 cup of white chocolate chips
1 teaspoon of sea salt flakes

Line an 8x8 square baking dish with parchment paper.

Add first five ingredients, save the white chocolate chips and sea salt, to a heavy saucepan. 

The one ingredient you may not have heard of is the Golden Syrup. It’s a British product. A thick, golden syrup that comes in a very cool, vintage-looking can. I was able to find it at Metropolitan Market in Seattle for just under $6. If you can’t find it at your high-end grocery store, they sell it on Amazon. And, although the rest of this recipe is not vegan, the golden syrup is! Some people use it as a substitute for honey.

Cook over low heat stirring constantly until mixture sugar has dissolved. This took me about 12 minutes. 

At this point the original instructions said to increase the heat and bring to a simmer until the mixture thickened and came away from the side of the pan. This never happened for me. I just advise to keep cooking it about 5-10 minutes more.Then remove from heat and stir in the white chocolate until combined and melted. Again, this was not as easy as it sounds. It took me a lot of stirring and the help of my husband smooshing up the chips to get all the chocolate completely melted and combined into the final, beautifully smooth fudge mixture.

One you’ve got the mixture looking good, pour it into your prepared 8x8 pan. Smooth the top, if necessary, and sprinkle with the sea salt flakes, pressing the flakes into fudge with back of spoon to secure, if necessary. My fudge was still pretty soft and liquid when I poured it into the pan so it was smooth and the sea salt flakes kind of melted nicely into the top without much effort.

Set aside for 30 minutes and then chill overnight. Cut into 64 1-inch pieces and refridgerate in an airtight container.

With the imported golden syrup and the sea salt flakes, this is not a cheap recipe. But it’s worth it. It tastes like pure gold and is a great gift for friends, family and coworkers. Trust me, you’re going to want to give this away because 1, when people taste it they will think you are a goddess in the kitchen and 2, you don’t want 64 pieces of this sitting around your house for the whole holiday season.

 Tune in tomorrow for a recipe for the other fudge pictured above (it's much easier!).